To my friends in Canton

An open letter to the voters of the Pro Football League Hall of Fame


To whom it may concern,

While emotions may overtake the point this letter will make; I will concede I have never been as angry about sports as I was on Superbowl Sunday.

Yes, the Packers did win the Superbowl and thus officially rendering this season to be the worst season in Minnesota Vikings history. Although surprisingly, that was not the primary reason why I was livid.

No, the voters of the Pro Football Hall of Fame again proved why the system is flawed while all football fans simultaneously had strokes when the voting results were made public

You, the voters, have agreed to once again pass up on the greatest receiver of all time.  I know, Jerry Rice is in the hall but we aren't talking about the hardest working or the most fortunate.  We are talking about the best ever.

All he does is....

We are talking about Cris Carter.  Understand that voters had an obligation to put the best WR in the hall.  He retired as the statistically second best receiver in the game.  Have you ever known an athlete that has been second best in his career and not been voted as a first ballot hall of famer?  Are we leaving out Karl Malone?  Or Ty Cobb (Hank Aaron would be second in HR's)? I mean did you voters leave Marino out of the hall?  No, of course not.

So when you folks didn't vote Cris Carter in as a first ballot, the fans shook our heads and said, "oh well, he'll get in next year."  He didn't.  And now we must wait again so and hope that you don't make the same mistakes.

Sure, I could have lobbied for Andre Reed or Tim Brown but how are you leaving out the best?

Look, Jerry Rice was a fantastic receiver.  Rice had a great work ethic and had the fortunate opportunity to play with Steve Young, Joe Montana, and Rich Gannon for his career as well.

Carter?  Well he played with Gannon, Wade Wilson, Tommy Kramer, Sean Salisbury (God help him), Jim McMahon (who doesn't remember Carter), Warren Moon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George,  Daunte Culpepper, Todd Bouman, and of course Spergon Wynn.

As you can see, he may have had some decent QB's for Carter but none that were championship caliber (except for maybe Moon and Gannon). Furthermore, Carter had to suffer through the same open door policy that the Vikings continue to have at QB to this day.

Even though there was no chemistry, Carter overcame drug problems and was a prolific pass catcher.  In this clip, the NFL network rate him with the best hands EVER.  What am I missing here?

Oh of course.  How silly of me.  The only wide receiver in history to have back to back 120 catches. He was also the only player in Pro Football history to have three 12+ reception games in one season.

Though, we are blessed with knowing the transcendence of Cris Carter and what he did for the wide receiver position.  Any Viking fan will tell you that no one owned the sidelines better than Cris Carter.  And the common sideline techniques that fans see every Sunday is based on what Carter did throughout his entire career.  This technique is historically significant.

So now I ask you, Pro Football Hall of Fame: How long must you continue to torture the best wide receiver in history?  He certainly hasn't deserved it.

All he does is catch touchdowns.  And I look forward to having him tell all of us that in his induction speech.